Uplifting....

After a reasonable night's sleep at Amberlrey I was on the road a little later than I had planned to be.  No worries though - I'm on holiday afterall.  The drive along SH1 to Cheviot was quiet but nothing really out of the ordinary, at the physical level at least.  At the human level though - very odd to be driving SH1 with virtually no other traffic on the road.  A surreal feeling of abandonment.  After Cheviot more of the physical evidence began to be seen......slips, road-cones indicating slumps or potholes, road barriers disappeared over the edges, cracks, roughly repaired sections, narrowed roads......  Once I hit the coast, that's when things started to look much more dire.  Railway lines lifted, rocks all over the lines, slips, more potholes and narrowed roads, stop-go men and women, temporary traffic lights, a few stray rocks on the roads, 'container' walls below slip areas........progress was much slower by necessity but there was absolutley no way I was going to stop for a longer look!  

Arrived In Kaikoura mid afternoon and met up with teejay.  We walked out across the uplifted seabed both being absolutley fascinated trying to identify the former high and/or low tide marks and comparing to the current tide level (which was pretty much bang on low tide).  We'd both had the idea we'd like to do a whale watch trip and headed along to see if we could book seats.  We weren't overly hopeful so weren't terribly surprised when told that the earliest booking they could fit us on to was Sunday!  C'est la vie.  They're clearly beginning to regain some economic momentum, although are only running one of their four boats at the moment.  I guess once the harbour dredging* is completed they'll get the other boats back into action too (*raised seabed = less 'bottom clearance' for boats = smaller window of opportunity to get boats out and back within a tide cycle hence the focus on dredging the harbour).

A wander around town was a stark reminder of the human impact of the quake - so many shops/cafes/restaurants shut, so few people - but also, again, the physical damage - cracked pavements, buildings on a lean, verandahs propped up with temporary scaffolds, boarded up windows.......fascinating but disturbing too.  So many lives affected in so many different ways.  What a stark reminder to the rest of us not to take anything for granted......

Dinner at the local indian restaurant - very nice :)  

Vans parked along Whaleway Station Road - the 'forecourt' to the Whale Watch place and the old railway station.  Lovely, creative naming there!  Ocean just metres from the van - a very mixed day indeed.